The tiny, everyday items, however — plastic bottle caps, utensils and food wrappers — are the ones that make the biggest difference, Kara Lankford of the Ocean Conservancy said.

"The smaller items are what’s difficult to pick up, like the Coke cans and forks," she said. "Those are the things that can harm animals. Even a plastic cap, a sea turtle might see that and think it’s a small jellyfish and ingest it and then it’s just going to lay there in their stomachs."

Alabama Coastal Cleanup takes place Saturday morning with volunteers gathering at 26 zones along the Gulf beaches, Mobile Bay and other local waterways. Between 8 a.m. to noon, participants will fan out Saturday morning to collect trash along the beaches.

Lankford is zone captain for the collection effort on the Mobile Bay Causeway. She expects volunteers to have an interesting haul this year after recent storms.

"We always have something odd. Usually after a hurricane we get more odd things, because they wash up" Lankford said. "I’m kind of curious after Hurricane Isaac and if it’s going to bring us anything weird. We found a toilet one year. We have kids from a Boy Scout troop that brought it in. They were so proud."

The puppy was found last year in a pile of debris by beach volunteers, according to Phillip Hinesley, coastal section chief of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The female was named CC and was adopted by volunteers, he said.

Over the past 24 years in Alabama, 1.24 million pounds of debris have been removed from the coastline and waterways as a result of the program. With a total of 65,255 participants, Coastal Cleanup is the largest annual volunteer event in Alabama, according to organizers.

The Alabama program is part of a worldwide cleanup effort organized by Ocean Conservancy, Lankford said. Last year, about 600,000 volunteers around the world collected more than 9 million pounds of trash from 20,000 miles of coastline.

Trash collected in Alabama and other locations will be weighed and cataloged to monitor pollution trends, Lankford said.

"It gives us a snapshot of what we’re picking up and what’s trashing our oceans," she said.

On a local level, Coastal Cleanup is put on by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Alabama People Against a Littered State. This year will be the 25th anniversary of Coastal Cleanup in Alabama, Spencer Ryan of PALS said.

The effort began with about 1,000 volunteers and has grown to include almost 3,500, Ryan said. Organizers hope for a bigger response this year, he said.

Response by volunteers has been good along Dog River, said Dugan Ellis, zone captain. Hurricane Isaac did not leave as much trash along the entire river as some storms, and tidal surges may have kept some of the debris in the upper areas of the river.

"I went and scouted it out and saw where the heavily polluted spots are and those are the ones we’re going to try and attack on Saturday," Ellis said. "Where I’ve seen it back in the higher parts of the river, it seemed like it pushed back up there and stayed, so there’s plenty, plenty up in there."

Ellis said zone captains will provide plastic bags for trash, but volunteers should come prepared to work outside, with sunscreen, hats and closed-toe shoes.

Anyone wanting more information on Coastal Cleanup, including zone locations, can call 251-621-1216 or go to www.AlabamaCoastalCleanup.com.